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Monday, 4 August 2008

(Pictured) WA Attorney General Jim McGinty. The president of the WA Law Society Hylton Quail says he hopes the changes do not mean that jail terms automatically increase by a third.

Western Australia's truth in sentencing laws will be scrapped under new legislation to be introduced into State Parliament.

Under the current laws, judges are required to reduce all sentences by a third.

The truth in sentencing legislation was introduced in 2003 to give greater transparency to those sentences, but the laws have attracted increasing criticism.

The laws initially applied to offences introduced before September 2003, but a ruling by the WA Supreme Court last month made it applicable to all offences, including the new charge of one punch homicide.

The Attorney General Jim McGinty says the laws will be repealed, meaning judges will be able to impose the maximum sentence available for serious crimes.

"The new sentences will be completely transparent, what you'll see is what you'll get," he said.

The president of the WA Law Society Hylton Quail says he hopes the changes do not mean that jail terms automatically increase by a third.

"We certainly agree that the sentences should be more explicable to the public so that they understand them, so that truth in sentencing does exist but we don't want to see people suddenly getting locked up for one third longer," he said.

The legislation will be introduced into parliament in the next two weeks.